Without freedom from sinful life, one cannot understand God; the four pillars of sin must be abandoned.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Paṇḍāl Lecture — November 11, 1971, Delhi 711111LE-DELHI [18:50 Minutes] Lecture_711111LE-DELHI Prabhupāda: ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ [sarvātma-snapanaṁ] paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam [Cc. Antya 20.12] I am very glad to hear our beloved Acyutānanda Svāmī speaking about material elements, very nicely and analytically. They're always trying, in the śāstras. Actually this movement is taken as one of the so-called religious movements.
But it is not that, it is a cultural movement to bring in the foolish persons to the real platform of life. This movement is helping people to make a solution of all the problems of life. Because we create problems by misunderstanding, just like a foolish person does not know what is the law. He steals something and when he is brought into the court, arrested if he says that, "I did not know there is a law that a thief is punished, I did not know." Or stealing is against law, criminal. So ignorance is no excuse, similarly out of ignorance we are committing so many sinful life's and we are becoming liable to be punished, that is the law of nature. You cannot avoid it, if you touch the fire it will burn, if a child touches the fire there is no mercy because the fire will not consider that, "here is a child he does not know he has touched the fire." No, no the fire will act, just like here there was little incident of fire.
We became all alarmed because fire will prove its worth unless we take precautions. This is the law, that is explained; daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā [Bg 7.14] The law's of nature are very, very stringent. We have got experience just like if you are to eat some quantity of food, if we eat more, then we will have to starve for three days because you have broken the law. If you require a certain quantity of salt in the food if the salt is more, or the salt is less, then the foodstuff is useless.
In this way if we study the law's of nature, then we can understand that we cannot break, just like you cannot break the law's of the state. Similarly the law's of nature means law's of God. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā; mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate [Bg 9.10] Don't think that the material nature they are acting are reacting automatically, no. Here it is said, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram, behind the law's of nature there is God.
Under His direction everything is moving, as Svāmī Acyutānanda said that, "it is not going on blindly." The sun rising and the sun setting—they are, I mean to say, acting exactly in time, why? yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs. 5.52] This is the experience of Brahmā, the first living creature within this universe, yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla- [break] .. The Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa. na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ māyayāpahṛta-jñānā āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ [Bg 7.15] When we recall that all people have become sinful and rascal, it is not our manufactured word's. It is the statement of the supreme authority Kṛṣṇa. He says, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante, anyone who is not in God consciousness, then he must be classified amongst the duṣkṛtinaḥ.
Duṣkṛtinaḥ means—very expert in mischievous activities, that is called duṣkṛtinaḥ. Kṛtī means—meritorious and duskṛtīmeans—the wrong way. At the present moment there is virtual[?] advancement of education, we don't speak of our own country but I have travelled all over the world Asia[?] and other European countries. Especially in America, there are so many nice universities, nice arrangement but unfortunately they are producing hippies. That is the net result, duṣkṛtinaḥ because they are all sinful, and mūḍhās. Mūḍhāḥmeans foolish or rascal behind this material activity there is something that something is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, explicitly stated.
But they do not know, the ultimate background of this material world is—they do not know. Therefore they are mūḍhās rascals, and narādhamāḥ, narādhamāḥ means the lowest of the mankind. Why? This human form of life is meant for understanding God, that is the only business.